The drama of a dropped phone, becoming a writing counselor, and a banned books club

 

And now he's thinking ahead to college?
I can't believe it.

This morning, after I fed Sophie her second breakfast—don’t ask!—I wasn’t ready to get up, so I crawled back in bed for a few minutes. But first I emailed Christian to say Sophie had her food and would be ready for a shot within an hour. When I got up for the third time, I dropped my phone, and it slid under the bed. No big deal! I could see it from my walker, so I got the broom. But each swipe with the broom only moved the thing farther from me. Put the broom up and got my grabber. That also just pushed it farther beyond my reach. I considered moving the bedside stand to see if I could sit at the very top if the mattress and reach it—decided that was not wise. To my credit, I never seriously considered getting down on the floor, crawling under the bedside stand, and grabbing it. Not only would I not be able to get up, I would earn the everlasting wrath of my daughter.

But there I was—no phone, no texting, no way to communicate except email, and I doubted anyone would read their email at 9:30 on Labor Day. Plus the window between Sophie’s breakfast and the time for her shot was running out. And I could not even make it to the house from my cottage alone—three steps up to the deck mean I need help. Although I felt isolated and alone, I told myself I was okay and I could simply give Sophie a snack whenever someone came out.

Fortunately, Christian came just before Sophie’s window closed, gave her a shot, and retrieved my phone. But it’s a lesson learned. The incident made me realize how important my phone is to my independence. Six years ago, post-surgery, a physical therapist warned me to always take my phone with me wherever I went in my cottage. I have pretty much taken those words to heart, especially on middle of the night bathroom trips, but now I am aware to be ever so much more careful of the phone itself.

I have a new calling of sorts—writing counselor. A friend, a highly educated, much published man, has asked me to help him consider what he should do with his rather large body of work, some published, some unpublished, So I’ve been playing pick and hunt, and I’ve come up with some ideas for him. I have no idea if they are workable or what he wants. To me, it’s a heavy responsibility to ask someone, “What do you want from these works,” and have them say, “I don’t know. I want you to tell me.” It’s also a heady feeling to think I have some knowledge that might be useful to someone whose intellect, I suspect, far outweighs mine.

And in that vein, maybe at the other end of the scale, I was talking with seventeen-year-old Jacob today about this personal essay for his college application. We discarded something about the two significant deaths in the family in the last six months—his other grandmother and a family dog—because it might look like an excuse. So we settled on something to do with his devotion to golf and achievements on the varsity team. It was fun to prod and poke and see him come to grips with the subject. When I asked how golf made him a better person, he hemmed, hawed, grinned, and said he didn’t really think it did. But when I pushed a bit, he said yes, golf had taught him focus and discipline. After we talked, I texted him with a couple of other things for him to think about, and I’m waiting to see what he comes up with. I will be happy if I can prod him into a bit of deeper thinking, not an easy thing for a seventeen-year-old. And a bonus: this is the child that spent almost half his young life with me. These days, with school, golf, a girlfriend, and a part-time job, he’s too busy and I almost never see him. I relished these few minutes when I had his full attention (I think).

Finally, a wild idea I had today. I was reading a friend’s post about book banning, and she mentioned that she belonged to a Controversial Book Club. Why, I thought, not organize a Banned Books Club. There are a lot of books on the various banned books lists that I have heard of but not read and others that I simply should read before I rush into battle. I have no idea of the mechanics of such a venture, but I envision something online and maybe just a book a month. But it occurs to me we are better prepared to battle the ignorance and narrow minds behind censored books if we have some knowledge of the books. A lot of us have read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or To Kill a Mockingbird, but how many of us have read Gender Queer, one of the most frequently banned books and yet one that could help teens with gender uncertainty. Just a thought, but I’ll be interested in opinions.

And now, holiday weekend over, it’s back to work tomorrow. As someone said, Labor Day brings with it a sense of settling back into the year and getting to work. Happy days, all!